Horses and bayonets: knockout zingers and one-liners from the last presidential debate

A combo image shows (top) the US President Barack Obama debates with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (down) on October 22, 2012 during the third presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. The final debate before the November 6 election is focusing on foreign policy. Television journalist Bob Schieffer moderates the debate. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama and contender Mitt Romney had their last chance to rev up the bases and make an impression on undecided voters Monday, and neither candidate wasted their time with niceties.

Last week Obama brought back some of the fire he lost during his sleepy performance in the first debate but failed to gain significant headway in the polls. At most, political analysts said he stopped the bleeding from his first painful display.

Romney’s “binders full of women” comment has been trending in social media for days, but he managed to tear attention away from the now famous line from the last. Still, he had some slips trying to keep up on foreign policy with the Commander in Chief of four years. Romney did say he it would be nice to be funny “not on purpose.”

Both managed to get in some jabs in on more than the economy; a must in the last debate and essentially their closing arguments.

Here are some of the final words from both presidential candidates, the gems and the goofs.

1. Romney: “We can’t kill our way out of this mess.”

If Obama was planning on earning some points for killing Osama bin Laden, Romney put a stop to that within the first few minutes of the debate. He courteously congratulated the president at the same time portraying him as war mongering.

2. Obama: “And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

Obama reminded voters that Romney identified Russia as the nation’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe” and swiftly from foreign policy to paint his opponent’s view toward women as archaic and his economic policies as reminiscent of the decade leading up to the Great Depression. He added decade references galore with this mouthful: “Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.”

3. Romney: “I’m not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia or Mr. Putin, and I’m certainly not going to say to him, ‘I’ll give you more flexibility after the election.’ After the election he’ll get more backbone.”

The presidential hopeful showed off his own backbone when he delivered this line, a quick retort to Obama’s criticism of his previous comments on Russia.

4. Obama: ”Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ships.”

Romney turned on the heat, slamming the president for not giving the military more funding and slashing the Navy. But if he wanted to look like a military pro, he didn’t quite get there. The president gave him a lesson in modern warfare via a board game reference.

5. Romney: Obama’s “apology tour.”

Top on Romney’s to-do list was portray the president as a weak leader overseas as well as at home. The governor hung his opponent out to dry for meeting with leaders from the Middle East and “apologizing” for the U.S. soon after taking office.

6. Obama: “Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the biggest whopper that’s been told during the course of this campaign, and every fact-checker and every reporter’s looked at it.”

The president didn’t need CNN’s Candy Crowley to fact check Romney this time around. After leaving his supporters frustrated after the first debate, Obama kept on his toes and called Romney out on any and everything he thought he got wrong.

7. Romney: “Mr. President, America has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.”

Ouch. A quick attack on Obama’s foreign-policy leadership.

8. Obama: “Well, Governor Romney’s right. You are familiar with jobs being shipped overseas, because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.”

This is the last thing Romney wanted to hear Monday night. Obama brought economics back into the debate, and it didn’t turn out well for Romney.

9. Bonus: Schieffer’s “Obama bin Laden.”

It’s been said before, but now moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News said it on television. Yikes.